Can New York Red Bulls End Its Winless Streak Against The Revolution?

Friday night sees the New York Red Bulls take on the New England Revolution. The Red Bulls went winless for the month of May going 0-2-4 and added another draw to begin June. That leaves them seven games without a win. There’s no better example then last week’s game where they gave up a 90th+ minute goal to Columbus to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

However, the Red Bulls are not the only slumping team in this fixture. The Revolution have lost their last four games, three of them coming by way of a shutout. Even though the Red Bulls have several key players out, they still have a fantastic chance to take all three points.

Regardless of who’s on the pitch for the Red Bulls, they should be up for this game. This fixture is known as the I-95 rivalry and one that has led to many great battles between both teams. The three keys to the Red Bulls winning this game are simple:

The link-up play between Thierry Henry and Luke Rodgers must continue. In MLS, there may not be a hotter pair of strikers in the league. Henry has 6 goals with three assists and Rodgers has added 5 goals as well as three assists.

No Penalty Kicks. The Red Bulls have allowed three penalties in the last four games. These goals have been the main reason for the Red Bulls failure to gain all three points lately. If they can avoid these mistakes at the back, they should have a good chance of winning.

Play hard until the whistle. This should really be a no-brainer, but the Red Bulls failed to do this last Saturday against the Crew giving up a goal in the 92nd minute scored by Rich Balchan.

The Red Bulls do not want to fall further off the pace of the Union at the top of the East standings and by following these keys, even with a weakened side, they should be able to gain all three points.

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I am a NE fan, but cannot see them getting a W in this game. NY should be able to get all 3 points, as NE has 2 goal in the last 7 games. In the last 10 MLS league games, they have 6 points. If NYRB doesn’t get a win, at home, against an NE team who has a missing Feilhaber and an aching Joseph there is something wrong.

I think it’s all psychological. They don’t have any killer instinct. They often play poorly in the second half of matches and seem to turn the switch off after scoring. I know that sounds simplistic, but that’s the way it looks to me.

Stories everywhere on how the Red Bulls are not paying property tax for the stadium saying the city owns the land. Not saying who is right, I have no idea.

The problem is the stadium was paid in part by tax payers issuing bonds, and now the revenue that was projected for the bonds is 1/10th of expected…and the city is laying of fire and police employees.

This has almost 100% certainly solved the build a stadium in the suburbs “problem”, but it almost certainly will be brought up when new stadiums want public money too. Especially of Harrison goes belly up while defaulting on its debt.

It will have zero effect on the club. But, I have to say I’m not that surprised. There has been zero development around the stadium, and many of the perceived benefits for Harrison were linked to supposed retail shops, bars, restaurants and housing.

One minor, or perhaps not, point. Taxpayers did not pay for the stadium. The bonds paid for the land on which it was built. Red Bull completely paid for the stadium.